I haven't seen this mentioned yet in other threads. Berhalter and Wolff played together for 1860 Munich and on the USMNT. In an interview, Berhalter praised Wolff's soccer intelligence and his focus on developing the attack. I admired Wolff as a player, but heard/read very little about him as a coach. Obviously, he favors working with coaching newbie Greg Berhalter to sticking it out here with Ben and Chad.
I don't know how good a coach Josh is, but it's too bad we aren't reading about Ashton leaving, instead.
Again: everyone says stuff like this, and I don't know that it's not justified; but I don't know that it is, either. To evaluate the performance of an assistant coach, one has to know that assistant coach's responsibilities. It's easy when it's something like the goalkeepers' coach, because you know what that guy's responsibilities are. What were Ashton and Wolff's responsibilities? If you don't know how good a job Wolff did, how do you know how good a job Ashton did? Mind, I'm not saying you're wrong. I just don't know how to tell how good a job is being done by someone when we don't really know what the details of their job *are*.
I think some of us think of Ashton as a Svengali who controlled young Ben from the beginning and is the ultimate "decider." Some of this suspicion comes from the fact that the FO kept him on after firing the head coach of the moment, and foisted him on Benny. But he might just be the experienced mentor that Ben needs. To me, though, coaching is not one of DC United's strengths, and I was hoping Wolff would step up and show he belonged on the sidelines. Now he might just do that in Columbus.
The only reason I have to hang my hat on is that Ashton (since 2006) and Kasper (since 2001) are the unifying threads in the tapestry of suckitude that DC United has become. I want them both gone. Period.
This is similar to the "backup QB" is better than the starter when the team otherwise sucks. It's not that the backup "is" better, it's just that the "starters" (Kasper & Ashton) have proven they are no good.
That was my gut reaction too. How the hell does Ashton survive on DC United's coaching staff? He's been there since 2007. We've had three head coaches since then. In all that time I've never heard anyone say much of anything positive about him. He doesn't seem to bring any coaching value or competence. Yet he endures.
This is the 2nd assistant we've lost in 2 years in what seems to be pretty much a lateral move. Boskovic, Rochat, Kevin Payne, Sebastian Salazar ... all people leaving DC in what more or less seem like lateral moves.
I want to be positive about this, but I take your point. Not that Josh was any great shakes, or that we're not going to improve the offense in the offseason. I think sometimes as an assistant coach, familiarity is a detriment, even. He'll do better in C-Bus and good for him. But given the last few years, it would just be nice if a coach left on our terms. I agree with those that think Ashton is a common thread that should be pulled. Maybe he's great? But if he's so great, you'd think his impact would be felt, somewhere, somehow. Yet, he abides. He must be a fantastic human being. On the positive side, we do now have the opportunity to bring in new blood.
I have seen United practices. Ashton is running them. Olsen is more of a player/coach during those practices. The "small sided games" that create the square/back pass carp that annoys me comes right from Ashton.
Best of luck, Josh I hope Josh does well, learns more from this new experience in Columbus and goes on to be a solid coach or even assistant coach. That said, I would think Josh's best influence as an assistant coach was earlier when he was still playing as a spot sub and also being a quasi assistant coach, helping and mentoring younger players regardless of position. A few seasons removed from that and that type of mentoring figure loses its impact, and now he's just another assistant. back to the beginning: Best of luck
Our best hope now is that DC replaces Wolfy and possibly Burpo with personalities more like Onstad, and that Ben comes back from his European vacation with some experience that will help him organize his relationships more around respect than love. Snipe some assistants from big college programs. Heck, trade Ashton for one. If you really can't stand to see the guy hurt, find him a job before you push him out the door.
What kind of personality was Onstad? Our keepers didn't drastically improve under his tutelage and now he's the failed ex-scout for Toronto FC. Maybe he was a nice guy, but he's part of a long line of failures for this club at the management and coaching level. My point is there is no one associated with this club in the last 5 years to point to as 'a reference' by which to acquire a new coach (any position) or scout. We simply have to look at other teams and try to match them, even if they are middling clubs. If we try to match what we've had since 2009 or so, we're going to fail.
I think there's an argument to be made that our defensive stoutness was a little more stout under Onstad. The keeper coach will have a thing or two to say about organizing defenses, directly and indirectly. He's a keeper with a long national team record, a leader, often captain, and a vocal guy. From that I'm extrapolating, rightly or wrongly, that he had a say in defensive matters (at least) while here, and that his opinion was respected and engaged. We weren't world beaters defensively last year, but we held it together despite injury after injury. I attribute some of that to Onstad. Much like Ashton is a common thread in the ursatz of the last 6 years, Onstad is a unique feature of the best of them. As for improving keepers, I haven't observed a drop off, and it takes more than a year to make a young keeper an old hand. I'd rather see him back here mentoring Bill, Joe and Andrew than being wasted as a scout.
Throughout the time I was covering the team the 2nd Asst Coach was the guy who stayed close to the players. Usually it was one of the older active players in this role - Etcheverry and Olsen with Hudson, Ryan Nelsen with Nowak, Gomez and Moreno with Soehn. Wolff left because he has no attachment to this team. We don't know, but things are probably poor in the locker room, and this is a great excuse to get out. The important question is, who will replace him? This could be a good first step in the off-season. Obviously the team should go out and get someone that was part of the "great" DC United teams, Etcheverry and Moreno being the two obvious choices. But, there are other guys out there that are equally qualified.
Moreno and Etcheverry have NO connection to the current team. According to this logic, Pajoy would be the obvious choice for Assistant Coach
Well, Olsen was a part of United's "great" teams, and what has that accomplished? With no evidence whatsoever, I choose to believe that Wolff was/is a very promising coach and someone worth grooming for more responsibility down the road. Now, I don't know if Berhalter sensed this years ago and vowed to make a play for him at the earliest opportunity, or if Wolff looked at the disfunction around him at DCU and called his old buddy pleading for him to get him out of this mess. Whatever the real story, for some reason I can't really justify I am sorry to see him go.
Actually Hamid had probably his longest stretch of exceptional play under Onstad. If anything you could say that Hamid has stopped progressing after Onstad left. If the evidence we're using is play on the field, the evidence suggests that Onstad was better than what we had before or since
Yea, there are basically two assumptions I can't help b That could very well be true. I feel like I view things at either extreme with DC. If someone leaves I think: "Wow how awful are they?" or "Escaping the sinking ship, smart guy." Very possible he was fleeing.